The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne:
Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of
the unhappy minister, a SCARLET LETTER -- the very semblance of
that worn by Hester Prynne -- imprinted in the flesh. As
regarded its origin there were various explanations, all of which
must necessarily have been conjectural. Some affirmed that the
Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne
first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance
-- which he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed out
-- by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. Others contended
The Scarlet Letter |